Sandberg reportedly asked employees to research George Soros

Facebook operations manager Sheryl Sandberg reportedly asked employees to second George Soros after a speech critical of the social media giant.

Sandberg sent an email to communications and policy makers in January asking them to take an interest in the billionaire's financial interests, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Soros made a speech at the World Economic Forum a month ago, calling Facebook a "threat to society." Facebook had conducted a study and discovered that Soros was behind the funding of a group called Freedom from Facebook.

The social media company recently admitted to hiring an opposition research firm, called Definers Public Affairs, to investigate Soros.

"In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook during a speech in Davos, calling us" a threat to society, "said Elliot Schrage, communications and policy officer for Facebook, in a statement released last week.

"We had never heard such criticism from him and we wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers have searched for this using public information.

Facebook told The Post on Thursday that research on Soros had begun before Sandberg sent the email.

"As Elliot said last week, we looked at the potential motivations of Facebook's criticism by George Soros in January 2018," said a Facebook spokesman.

"This research was already underway when Sheryl sent an email asking if Mr. Soros had bypassed Facebook's actions. Sheryl has never directed research on Freedom from Facebook. But as she has already said, she assumes full responsibility for any activity that occurred under her supervision. "